The Ministry of Health announced Saturday that its hunt for the
source of the recent outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) in Beijing and Anhui Province continues.
The first diagnosed SARS patient, surnamed Song, is a
26-year-old postgraduate student from Anhui Province. She worked in
Beijing at the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control's
National Institute of Virology from March 7 through 22. Her
symptoms appeared on March 25, after she had returned to Anhui.
Another SARS patient who may have been infected while working at
the virology institute is a 31-year-old researcher surnamed Yang.
His symptoms developed on April 17.
Within a short time after the first patient was identified as
possibly having SARS, a team of experts from China's Academy of
Military Medical Sciences, and the Beijing and national disease
prevention and control centers assembled to conduct an
epidemiological investigation. The team, joined by counterparts
from the World Health Organization, has investigated the two
virology institute cases and interviewed all other staff working
there.
They also conducted field investigations and collected samples
at the laboratory, which have been sent to two Chinese national
laboratories and a World Health Organization (WHO) network
laboratory for testing.
However, the team believes that more tests must be run on the
laboratory samples, as well on samples taken from Song and Yang and
those infected by them, in order to separate and verify the SARS
virus and determine the virus sequence.
"Therefore, we still need to wait for the
final result," said an official with the health ministry.
China has reported no new confirmed or suspected SARS cases in
several days. All previously diagnosed patients are in good
condition, with the exception of Beijing patient Zhang. The
capital's first diagnosed SARS patient, Li, has recovered and was
discharged from hospital on May 4.
(China Daily May 9, 2004)